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Assange probe dropped, but he still faces arrest in UK

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STOCKHOLM: Swedish prosecutors on Friday dropped a seven-year rape investigation targeting Julian Assange, a legal victory for the WikiLeaks founder who has been holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012.


But British police said they would still arrest Assange if he tried to leave the embassy, saying he had breached the terms of his bail by refusing to turn himself in when an arrest warrant was issued in 2012.


Marianne Ny, Sweden’s director of public prosecution, said in a statement that the rape investigation was dropped because “there is no reason to believe that the decision to surrender him to Sweden can be executed in the foreseeable future.”


“In view of the fact that all prospects of pursuing the investigation under present circumstances are exhausted, it appears that it is no longer proportionate to maintain the arrest of Julian Assange in his absence,” she added.


Assange, for his part, said he would “not forgive or forget” the prosecutors’ attempts to have him extradited, which he avoided by remaining in the Ecuadoran Embassy.


“Detained for seven years without charge by [sic] while my children grew up and my name was slandered. I do not forgive or forget,” he said on Twitter.


Assange’s accuser called the prosecutors’ decision a “scandal”, her lawyer said. — AFP


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